Benedict XVI

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is the 265th and former pope of the Catholic Church, having served from 2005 to 2013.

Ordained as a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Ratzinger established himself as a highly regarded university theologian by the late 1950s and was appointed a full professor in 1958. After a long career as an academic, serving as a professor of theology at several German universities.